"The basic problem" [shi]

The basic problem of being   would need to be solved
within the arena   of the particular being

if it's worked out there   the questions are all resolved
if not   you'd always be chumped by what you were seeing

it's beginning to rain   it's been a rather dry summer
I sit outdoors   in my corner   and light a cigar

the purpose of living   is not a pedestrian rumor!
but why does it always elude   and seem afar?



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[This I will regard as the second poem in a sequence that follows (in feeling as much as in form) from whatever I may have absorbed, in gone years, dabbling at reading and translating from classical Chinese shi. The most typical form of such a poem is in 8 lines, either with 5 characters per line (mirrored in the English form by five stressed syllables, as here) or with 7 characters per line (mirrored in the English form by seven stressed syllables, as in the 1st poem in this sequence).

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Chinese poems, late summer, no. 2

no. 1:   Rooftop Scene